Prayer

• (5:13-18) The OR's (Original Readers) situation is bad, so James encourages them to pray! 
• (1:17-18) He talks about the character of the One they are praying to, reminding the OR that God's character is consistent and unchanging, which would have brought a lot of comfort to these suffering believers! Because God is consistent in His character, they can go confidently to Him in prayer. But how? 
• (1:5-8) Here, James gives guidance for how they are supposed to pray, and shows them the right heart posture they are supposed to have. 

Wisdom

• (1:5) Wisdom is the first thing James instructs his readers to pray for, and he speaks about it as though it were a gift from God.
• (3:13-18) Here, James defines what heavenly wisdom (wisdom from God) looks like and contrasts this to earthly wisdom.
• This earthly wisdom leads to some pretty awful things which he addresses in the book. 

The Tongue

• (1:19-21) The theme of the tongue is extremely prevalent in James, and it is first introduced here through farming imagery. In this well-known passage, the Original Readers are admonished to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
• (1:26-27) He says that if you cannot control your your tongue, then your religion is worthless. What does James mean?
• (4:11-12) We see the OR were not quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. They were speaking evil and judging each other. 
• (3:1-5) Because they are not speaking rightly to or about each other, they need to be warned about the power of the weapon they are wielding. James also shows how hypocritical it is to worship God, but talk badly about His images. 
• (4:1-5, 6-10) The fruit of their untamed tongue was a fractured community with conflicts and divisions. These believers needed to repent before God in humility! When they repented before God, they would realize they needed to repent to one another for all they had done and said, as they worked to patch up the fractures in their divided community. 
• The biggest of these division was between the rich and the poor.

The Rich and the Poor

• (1:9-11) James sets up a big contrast between two people, the believer (implied to be poor) and the rich. He describes the life of the rich as being transient. 
• (4:13-17) The fleeting imagery to describe the rich continues here. He makes the point that because riches are so fleeting, don't waste your life pursuing them.  
• (5:1-6) James makes several allusions to the Old Testament, to the story of Cain and Abel as well as Israel's cries at the beginning of Exodus. All this is for the purpose of reminding the poor OR that God's just judgement will come on their rich oppressors. 
• (2:1-13) If God's judgement will come on rich and oppressive unbelievers, then why are the OR giving them preferential treatment to the detriment of the poor? James confronts this issue here, reminding them of the law of love; the rule of the Kingdom of God as inaugurated by King Jesus. 
• The people James was writing to needed to live in accordance with this law of love, because it wasn't just hearing the words of Jesus that mattered. they needed to do them.

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